Summary
- Kaitlyn Dever was cast as Abby in The Last of Us Season 2, creating some controversy due to her body type but serving as a hidden detail.
- A cut idea from The Last of Us Part 2 involving a live band playing "Little Sadie" by Crooked Still was revived for the premiere of the show.
- Season 2 premieres of The Last of Us TV show include Easter Eggs from the games, such as Ellie encountering a new type of intelligent infected, similar to Stalkers.
Naughty Dog created the ultimate Easter Egg game with the Uncharted series. It starred a treasure hunter, Nathan Drake, in various Indiana Jones-like adventures and often poked fun at other Sony games or titles from beyond with little Easter Eggs. While not as adventurous, The Last of Us also had some good Easter Eggs.
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While Max’s video game adaptation of The Last of Us isn’t a game, it continued throwing Easter Eggs to fans in season one. The premiere of season two had quite a few Easter Eggs already so let’s see where the references cropped up.
Spoilers Ahead for The Last of Us games, Season 1 of The Last of Us TV series, and the premiere of The Last of Us Season 2
6 Casting Kaitlyn Dever As Abby
A Naughty Dog Alumni
Abby is a key character who appears in The Last of Us Part 2, so after season one of the TV show ended, fans wondered who could play her. Kaitlyn Dever was chosen to portray Abby in season two of the show, which sparked some mild controversy since her body type wasn’t as muscular as the Abby's is in the game. Regardless of size, Dever has been working with Naughty Dog for a while and her inclusion is sort of a hidden detail.
Even diehard Naughty Dog fans may not know that Dever did motion capture for Cassie Drake at the end of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Around this time, about 2014, there were talks about making The Last of Us into a movie, and Dever was considered to play Ellie. It certainly took a while, but Dever finally got to be a part of The Last of Us universe as Abby, which is a fun behind-the-scenes story. This was lightly touched on by the creator of The Last of Us, Neil Druckman, on the podcast recap for the TV show.
5 Crooked Still Reborn
Getting The Band Together
Also in that podcast, Druckman talked about a cut idea from The Last of Us Part 2. The dance scene between Dina and Ellie was supposed to have a live band playing, but eventually it was decided they didn’t want to animate new characters for just one scene. Instead, a record played music and one of these songs was “Little Sadie” by Crooked Still, a song that originated somewhere in the 1920s.
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This version is used in the adapted scene in the premiere of season two of the show, except that a live band was now there. The band is Crooked Still, accompanied by the composer for the game, Gustavo Santaolalla. For the show, they were renamed Brittany and the Jug Boys, which isn’t a reference to anything but fitting for their style of music.
4 Joel And Dina Love Electronics
Forming A Bond
In the opening of The Last of Us Part 2, Dina and Joel do not interact. This was changed in the show to have someone close to Ellie try and get Joel back in her good graces. To aid in this new ploy, the showrunners repurposed some lore from another character named Eugene from the game.
An early scene in the game has players go through some ruins with Dina and Ellie and, in their exploration, Dina comments on how some circuitry reminds her of Eugene. He used to be good at electronics and even taught Dina a few things. That’s what Joel does in the premiere of season two: teach Dina about circuits. It's a nice homage to Eugene, but this is only the beginning.
3 Gail And Joel
Paying For Therapy With The Sticky Icky
In the game, Eugene is only shown in two photos and has a presence in some notes, but that’s it. One photo shows Eugene with Tommy as a fellow Firefly, while the other shows his wife and kid, neither of whom are not named. Eugene dies of natural causes at the age of 73, but this was seemingly changed for the show. Eugene’s wife is given a name, Gail, who appears in the premiere as Joel’s therapist.
She also says Joel killed him, but how and to what extent is unknown. He may have turned into a Clicker and this scene was meant to sow distrust in Joel’s character, which was thematically what episode one was trying to do overall. For payment, Joel gives Gail some cannabis, which is alluded to have come from Eugene’s stash. In the game, Dina and Ellie later stumble upon a secret lab of Eugene’s where he was growing the very same stash. It seems Joel may have stumbled upon it first.
2 Ellie’s Risky Encounter
Stalkers Are Coming
In the premiere of season two, Dina and Ellie still go on a patrol mission, just like the game, but it’s much shorter and less impactful. The biggest revelation happens when Ellie discovers a new type of infected human. It sounds different, hides from Ellie, and even sets a trap, implying intelligence.
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When she explains this to a Jackson council, Ellie says this thing was basically “stalking” her, which is where the Easter Egg comes into play. Runners are a type of faster infected that are fueled by rage, which is the first state humans will go into after turning. A step above that is the Stalker, which is similar to the type Ellie encounters in the show. It’s also worth noting that in the same scene, Ellie sees a dog on the wall that was named employee of the month at a store. This dog was used in The Last of Us Part 2 to hide a safe code.
1 Gameplay Homages
From Bottles To Sniping
The opening of season two has a lot of gameplay callbacks. In the first game, Joel could craft shivs which could instantly kill infected but would then break afterward. In The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie’s knife was basically unbreakable when used for stealth kills, and Abby could just break an infected’s neck like it was a a chicken bone.
Ellie is shown in the show putting her knife skills to the test in the same brutal manner. She also demonstrates in the premiere how players can grab bottles in the game to distract infected by throwing them. Finally, there’s the scene where Tommy is teaching Ellie how to snipe. In the game, this happens in a flashback, in during a different time of year, and it’s how the game explains how wind resistance works with the rifle.
- Release Date
- January 15, 2023
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Craig Mazin
Cast
-
Pedro PascalJoel Miller -
Bella RamseyEllie Williams
WHERE TO WATCH
- Directors
- Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
- Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Halley Wegryn Gross
- Franchise(s)
- The Last of Us
- Creator(s)
- Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
